I've used Insure4Less a number of times, mainly Europe. I've never had to claim.

Last year I visited the US and used them again - however the premium to cover rockclimbing was way more than it had ever been, partly because of the destination and partly because I understand premiums had been upped after claims.

While diplomat quoted me at $120 a month plus they cover way more (snowboarding, skydiving). but i feel like there rescue coverage will not be as good. Thats why i wanted to combine with Austrian Alpine Club S&R. which is $270 a year.

I cant find anything else out there that covers rock climbing. To the extent i can only find top-roping, bouldering, climbing with a guide. Thats all. :-S

On 26/05/2014 jclimber wrote:>>Thats why i wanted to combine with Austrian Alpine Club S&R. which is $270>a year. >

AAC leaflet says SAR is EU25K, but actual medical care?

If I'm reading it right it is "For medically necessary treatment (including medically necessary transportation to a hospital) abroad, up to EUR 10,000,–."

If that's it, EU10K won't get you a band-aid in the US hospital system. You'd want separate medical cover of the kind in most general travel insurance - which AAC states it is not - but of course they will not cover injuries due to climbing, so you're back at square one.

Patriot adventure had policies for non Americans for medical and rescue and regular travel insurance options that cover rockclimbing. It was the only company we could find that would cover ski mountaineering in Antarctica for Australians. It was quite pricey for 3 months and it covered the medical side only. It can be extended for regular insurance. However I had an annual policy with insure4less in addition, but as they wouldn't cover Antarctica I didn't extend it to cover rockclimbing, and relied on the patriot one for medical expenses and rescue if needed. Unfortunately I had to use trip cancellation prior to leaving Australia, missed the boat. Trip cancellation had a limit of $7500 with insure 4 less, which came nowhere near the price that I had paid for the Antarctic trip. But they paid up to that limit no problem, promptly. And I never tried the patriot policy, staying well during our Patagonian climbing leg of the trip.

On 26/05/2014 jclimber wrote:>Yeah it was $1700 for insure4less trad climbing for a year.

Ouch.

Seems a lot at first, but following a dubious back-of-the-envelope calculation based on rubbery figures (how's that to inspire confidence?) I'm not so sure it's necessarily all that outrageous.

It's been guestimated that there are ~50 fractures (ranging from fractured skulls through to broken legs) per year in Yosemite, resulting from 25,000 to 50,000 climbing days (http://jrre.org/stayalive.pdf - old figures, I'm afraid). That would be an average of a fracture for every 500-1000 days spent climbing, which seems ballpark feasible (and excludes the less common but more serious and expensive accidents).

If you climb every second day during a year-long trip that gives you about a 1:4 chance of needing to hit the hospital at some point. Given likely US hospital fees without cover and potential SAR costs if you plan on doing anything big/remote, the $1,700 is sounding like a pretty good investment to me at that point, assuming insure4less have a reputation of paying up.

Off my soap box now - hope you have a blast, whatever option you chose. Where are you planning on climbing?

On 26/05/2014 Ben_E wrote:>On 26/05/2014 jclimber wrote:>>Yeah it was $1700 for insure4less trad climbing for a year.>>Ouch.>>Seems a lot at first, but following a dubious back-of-the-envelope calculation>based on rubbery figures (how's that to inspire confidence?) I'm not so>sure it's necessarily all that outrageous.>
... Given likely>US hospital fees without cover and potential SAR costs if you plan on doing>anything big/remote, the $1,700 is sounding like a pretty good investment>to me at that point, assuming insure4less have a reputation of paying up.>

Agreed, mainly given US hospital costs.

When I was regularly organising Antarctic trips, and IHI insured both climbing and Antarctic expeditions, I used to pay around $400 for 90 days insurance that mostly just covered SAR/medevac (to $300K!) and repatriation - not general travel stuff.

So extrapolate that to a year and it's $1600, more than five years ago.

Ive pretty much decided to get Diplmat Insurance. They were able to cover me for rockclimbing. They also are covering me for skydiving and snowboarding. This is just medical insurance. also they cover the normal medical as well.
I think ill be using the Austrian Alpine Club for search and rescue.
And ill use a insurance company ( not yet found) for general travel insurance.

I consider this a win.
1. Its the same price for insurance for less minus the cost for winter sports. So i save 300 bucks or something
2. skydiving is also covered. (ihi, covermore, qvb) only cover this, while insure for less does not. Im starting to get into this sport
3. I am not locked into insure4less and their general travel insurance policy.

The bad:
Im only covered to a million US. and im only getting $25k EURO for search and rescue.

Also on a side note. Patriot insurance only covers upto $50k for rockclimbing so dont go with them.

cheers.

PS ill probably start out in Yosemite and see what happens from there.